


You Can Keep All Your Misery

by whitebloodcellfightinglikehell



Category: All Time Low
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-09
Updated: 2011-07-09
Packaged: 2017-10-21 04:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/221093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitebloodcellfightinglikehell/pseuds/whitebloodcellfightinglikehell





	You Can Keep All Your Misery

_My ship went down in a sea of sound_

His feet were speeding against the floor, clean-cut strides to the door, and he swore if it was fucking locked this time, he'd kick it down. But it wasn't nearly as calm as usual, he couldn't just escape from his dad this time. 

Drunken footsteps and a firm throwing hand were his mortal enemies. And when he woke up, he was in the hospital. 

"Alex?"

Jack was there. Wait. Why was  _he_  there, of all people? He hadn't seen him in 2 years, the last time he'd seen him was when he was an asshole, always torturing him with that mouth, with that tongue like a nightmare. Spitting insults out like Alex would spit out his teeth.

"Can you talk...?"  
"Yeah."

Jack paused before going on.

"I don't know why, but we found you drug out to the middle of the road, knocked out in front of your house." Silence. "My dad and I, I mean. We...ran over your hand. You were so out cold, though, that you didn't react. I think."

He realized that pain was lingering up and down his palm. He tried to move it but it was totally crushed, the bones were pulverized. His hand didn't even feel like it had fingers.

"Oh."

It was really, really silent before Alex spoke up.

"Do you know what happened...?"

Jack was afraid to speak. He didn't know much about Alex and his dad's relationship, but he knew it was really messed up. But he decided to anyways. "Your dad was cheering us on to run over your dead body...he thought you were dead."

Alex felt as if someone was pouring water into the back of his eye, but his eyelid had been blocked up. So many tears threatening him. But he couldn't let them out. 

Jack wasn't a friend to him, he had probably just brought him here to not get questioned by cops when he got ran over. If he started crying, or if he showed any weakness at all, he'd get called a pussy.

Then he looked at his mangled hand and saw Jack holding his own under it. Alex felt his face go hot, and he would have pulled his hand away if he could have.

"Alex."  
"Jack."  
"Um. I wanna help."  
Alex looked purely confused. Why would he even care? All of those twisted names he used to call him...

"How? Are you gonna call the police? Are you gonna talk to him? Fight him if he attacks me?" he chuckled bitterly and looked down at the hospital bed he was in. He'd just made himself look like a total dick, okay, cool.

"Well. I don't know. But I really wanna help, because this isn't right."

Alex felt his eyelid fill with tears. Well, fuck. 

"Nothing's fucking right, it's never been right. You don't even care!"

"Alex."

Really intense silence, there. It almost stung.

"I do care." Finally, speaking.

"You were such an ass, though." Tear number one trailing down his face, yay.

"But I did it for acceptance...because if everyone knew who I really was..."

"You're not some kind of fucking mutant or something, are you?"

"No."

"What, then?"

A pause. "I like guys."

Alex's heart leaped. Okay, this was new, and that spiteful mood was gone. Because truth was, the reason why everyone hated him was because he always ended up with a crush on a dude. 

"You...so..."

"Yeah, I bullied you for acceptance."

Alex smiled a bit. "Honestly, I would have done the same..."

Jack smiled back. "I'm glad you understand. And do you see why I want to help?"

"Um..." he froze as Jack looked at his hand and put it in-between both of his own. "Oh."

"Yeah. I'm going to help you."

"No, I can deal with it. It's my problem."

"It's not."

"It is. I'm going to get past it and I'm going to come out victorious."

Jack shook his head. "No, I'm gonna help."

"No, you've helped me enough today. Really." he smiled widely.

"How?"

"I just...you..."

"Right."

Alex felt something pull up in his chest, something happy, and felt like part of his reason for existing had come back.

 _I must be dreaming, right?_


End file.
